Just a heads up that the headphone output from the A4 is plenty loud enough for the input of the Rytm. I know lots of people on the forum are having trouble getting loud enough levels into the Rytm but the headphone output has much lower impedance than the main outputs. The headphone output of the A4 is +15 dBu 55 Ω while the main outs are +15 dBu 440 Ω What this should mean, in general is that the signal from the headphone out has less electrical resistance, and should be louder.
I tested with a Mogami 2534 1/4 inch to 1/4 inch TRS cable for a stereo signal, which is also a low impedance cable, so results may vary. I don’t currently have a 1/4 male TRS to Stereo 1/4 TS cables to compare the levels from the A4’s main outs to the headphone amp but I’m sure someone here does and could test it.
Right now things are working fine and the A4 levels are plenty loud enough to get ran through the Rytm’s rather noisy compressor.
I still find it a bit of a design fault if line level signals from the A4 are insufficient to get proper operation out of the RYTMs compressor etc.
Also the headphone output on the A4 to my taste could use a bit of a raise in volume, since driving high impedance headphones like AKG 240s can be a bit troublesome as working that way tends to mess with proper gain staging.
The A4s internal voice mixer can sometime behave a little strange on high levels too, especially with lots of subs. To my guess the A4 either has a “hidden” limiter on the mixer resulting in some “ducking” artefacts or it is simply the mixing stage getting overdriven thus resulting in a kind of crudely compressed sound.
Either way sometimes I like the results or “glitches” that result from driving the mixer, but in the long run I’d prefer to have more control.
It depends on the device. The A4’s headphone output puts out the same dB’s as the main out’s so it becomes a impedance issue instead of just a output level issue. Even that sweetwater article says “You will probably find that even with the headphone volume all the way up the signal getting to the mixer is no louder than the line level signal was”
The A4’s main outs are balanced but since the Rytm’s input (and the A4’s input) are unbalanced you don’t get the benefit of running a balanced signal so a unbalanced output from the headphone input should be fine. Like I said in my original post, I don’t have the proper cable to test the other issues that might arise with using a headphone, certain headphone amps do introduce noise but I don’t think it’s an issue with the A4, it has high quality outputs. Also, someone in another thread said he compared the main outs and headphone outs and there was no discernible difference. Sounds fine to me.
I don’t think there is anything you really can do to not have Rytm’s compressor affect the A4, whatever is plugged into the input is summed with the Rytm signal and sent through the compressor. Whatever settings that were used affected the A4’s sound as well. It’s more so you can get the sound of the Rytm compressor with the A4 and use it for a simple “master bus” compression type of situation for live use or recording.
